ALGIERS, Algeria, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Algerian troops found
25 bodies of hostages at a bomb-littered gas plant deep in the
Sahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending a four-day siege, a
security source said, raising the death toll of militants and
their captives to at least 80.

Around 30 foreigners - including American, British, French,
Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian citizens - are among those
missing or confirmed dead after the siege, one of the worst
international hostage crises in decades.

Algeria had given a preliminary death toll of 55 people
killed - 23 hostages and 32 militants - on Saturday and said it
would rise as more bodies were found.

The security source said that toll did not include the 25
bodies found on Sunday, which meant the total number of hostages
killed - foreign and local - was at least 48. The search was not
over, and more could yet be found, he said.

He also said six militants were captured alive, including
two found hiding on Sunday. Troops were still searching for
others. Earlier, the authorities had said all the fighters had
been killed.

Among foreigners confirmed dead by their home countries were
three Britons, one American and two Romanians. The missing
include at least 10 Japanese, five Norwegians, three other
Britons, and a British resident. The security source said at
least one Frenchman was also among the dead.

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal is expected to release more
details at a news conference on Monday.

"We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation," he said in
a video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. He said
about 40 attackers participated in the raid, roughly matching
the government's figures for fighters killed and captured.

The fighters swooped out of the desert and seized the base
on Wednesday, capturing a plant that produces 10 percent of
Algeria's natural gas exports, as well as a nearby residential
barracks.

They demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamist
fighters in neighbouring Mali that had begun five days earlier.
However, U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raid
could have been organised quickly enough to have been conceived
as a direct response to the French military intervention.

The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian army
opened fire saying fighters were trying to escape with their
prisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucks
in a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.

Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners
escaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven from
the residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in the
industrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.

The bloodshed has strained Algeria's relations with its
Western allies, some of whom have complained about being left in
the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being
taken. Nevertheless, Britain and France both defended the
Algerian military action.

"It's easy to say that this or that should have been done.
The Algerian authorities took a decision and the toll is very
high but I am a bit bothered ... when the impression is given
that the Algerians are open to question," said French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius. "They had to deal with terrorists."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a televised
statement: "Of course people will ask questions about the
Algerian response to these events, but I would just say that the
responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the
terrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack.

"We should recognise all that the Algerians have done to
work with us and to help and coordinate with us. I'd like to
thank them for that. We should also recognise that the Algerians
too have seen lives lost among their soldiers."

LAST WORDS?

Alan Wright, now safe at home in Scotland, said he had
escaped with a group of Algerian and foreign workers after
hiding for a day and a night. While hiding inside the compound,
he managed to call his wife at home with their two daughters.

"She asked if I wanted to speak to Imogen and Esme, and I
couldn't because I thought, I don't want my last ever words to
be in a crackly satellite phone, telling a lie, saying you're OK
when you're far from OK," he recalled to Sky News.

Despite the incident, Algeria is determined to press on with
its energy industry. Oil minister Youcef Yousfi visited the site
and said physical damage was minor, state news service APS
reported. The plant would start back up in two days, he said.

The Islamists' assault has tested Algeria's relations with
the outside world and exposed the vulnerability of multinational
oil operations in the Sahara.

Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgents
in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the
start of the crisis that there would be no negotiation in the
face of terrorism.

French troops in Mali advanced slowly on Sunday towards the
town of Diably, a militant stronghold the fighters abandoned on
Saturday after punishing French attacks.

The apparent ease with which guerrillas swooped in from the
desert to take control of an important energy facility has
raised questions over the country's outwardly tough security
measures. Yousfi said Algeria would not allow foreign security
firms to guard its oil facilities.

Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside
help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site.

Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara
desert has long been a preoccupation of the West. Smugglers and
militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.

The most powerful Islamist groups operating in the Sahara
were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in the
civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional
wing of al Qaeda has gained fighters and arms as a result of the
civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar
Gaddafi's army.

Trending On Reuters

Markets

The BSE Sensex posted its worst monthly fall in more than two years, raising concerns a strong rally that saw indexes surge in the fiscal year was waning due to concerns about stock valuations and a more gradual economic growth. Full Article